Summertime, Summertime, Sum-sum-summertime!

 The last half of the summer became quite eventful. The first weekend of August, “The Melman” was going to be moving down to Louisiana. He had been living in Minnesota until Matt went on a cross-country road trip in his Oldsmobile nicknamed ‘Snout’ to drive down Route 1 in California and then visit his mom for a few weeks in Arizona. When he stopped in to see the Melman, Melman asked to give him a day and he would join him on his trip. By the next morning, the Melman had quit his job, broke up with his girlfriend and packed what little stuff he wanted to keep. Something prevented them from making it to California, but when they got to Arizona, Matt spent a few weeks with his mom and Melman took a bus back to New York.

  Now his next adventure was taking him south to teach. Tom, this absolutely amazing guy, cooked a farewell feast at "Fiddler’s Green" on the eve of his departure. Matt was going to go with him and fly back. The party was great, and Tom gave him a bottle of Champaign to celebrate his new life when he got there. Unfortunately, they only got as far as South Carolina or Georgia, when a car going the opposite direction, crossed the median and hit Melman’s Ford Taurus head on. They both survived, but Melman sustained a serious hip injury that the doctors said may prevent him from walking again. Miraculously, the procedures they had done worked wonders and he was able to walk, after months of rehab. Unfortunately, everything Melman owned was destroyed in the accident. Matt said even the Melman’s clothing was in shreds. Strangely enough, the bottle of Champaign was the only thing not destroyed in the accident.

  Jen had announced to me that she was moving to California October 1st with her boyfriend. That didn’t sit well with me. I didn’t have her, but I had her in my life and that was important to me. We had talked about me moving, but I couldn’t pull the trigger. It was now or never for me to confess how I felt about her, so I did. It all came out. Everything I’ve ever felt about her. She couldn’t comprehend how special she was in my eyes. She was just like every other girl in the world, she thought, but she wasn’t. Not to me. Not ever. I put her on a pedestal and worshipped her. She admitted that didn’t make her feel comfortable, but she loved me too. We relayed to each other all our missed connections and all the obstacles that prevented a relationship. Mostly, I cried over the phone like a moron over the lost opportunity and I am sure that didn’t make me any more endearing to her.

Out of the blue Mary (you remember Mary!) called me. She wanted to let me know not to try to call her because she was joining the army. I couldn’t tell if she was serious about me calling her or her joining the army. Then I realized it was Mary, of course she was serious.

  Alan called me one day to ask if I wanted to go with Deana and him to see a free concert Garth Brooks was giving in Central Park. I didn’t like country music, but it was a Tuesday morning and I had nothing else to do.  Now that Matt was back prematurely, I knew he had nothing else to do either so I dragged him with us as well. The concert wasn’t going to start until the evening, but Alan made us get there by noon so we could get a good spot. When he found ‘his spot’, Matt and I stayed for about 5 minutes before we took off. As we rounded the first hill we ran into a girl I knew through my brother who was selling Lemon ices from a cart. She gave us free ices and we were on our way. We wanted to go to a specific record store in Greenwich Village and it was too hot to be sitting out in the sun all day. We’d rather hang out in an air conditioned bar. By the time we got back the sun was setting. The crowds had swelled to a huge amount and they weren’t letting people into the park anymore if you didn’t have the ability to duck under police tape which I guess many people have a problem with. When we got back to Alan and Deana, they were miserable. ‘The Spot’ they had picked out was up on a hill under a tree that would give them a little shade, but the shade was little and it was a berry tree. They were sunburned, berry stained and grumpy. They weren’t much happier when they heard our tales of free ices, beer, watching baseball and air conditioning. I offered to get them some free Lemon Ices, but I was informed they had sold out of them hours ago. When the concert started, their mood lightened and everyone had a good time. Billy Joel and Don McLean made cameo appearances so us non-country fans were appeased.

 By this time I was done with all the drama Dena was bringing into my life. I found something more interesting to occupy my time. It was called ‘The Internet.’ As for that whole Mark-Dena situation, I had stayed away for a couple of weeks and in no uncertain terms told her our friendship would not continue in the form it was today and dating her was out. My friends were teasing me about having to hang out with Dena’s ex now that those two broke up and neither would leave me alone. After not hearing from her in those few weeks, I thought it was over, but my birthday came around and Dena stopped by and dropped me off a gift. (It was a bottle of ‘Taboo,’ cherry liquor that tasted like Dayquil, but anyway…) I was more interested in ‘chatting’ online to someone from Boston who was asking me political questions for a paper she was doing. I was a slow typist as it was and didn’t want to keep them waiting. Dena said that it was okay; she had a guy waiting for her in her car that she was going on a date with. I told her to have fun and uncharacteristically didn’t walk her to the door. Moments after she left there was a huge commotion outside. Enough for me to pry myself from the computer and look out the front window. Out in front of my house was my father holding back a huge Hispanic kid from Mark who was trying to punch him until my mother grabbed him by the back of his hair while Dena screamed at Mark to just go away. I thought “my parents have this under control” and went back to the computer, but only for a few seconds before I surmised I best get out there.

&nbs

p; My father was sitting on the porch smoking a cigarette when Dena walked out the door. As she headed toward her car, Mark came running up to intercept her. Fermin, the Hispanic kid jumped out of the car to defend Dena. My father quickly surveyed the situation and realized that Fermin would destroy the shorter guy and grabbed him. Mark was using this opportunity to take a few cheap swings. My father started thinking that he was going to have to let him go so he could defend himself. When suddenly my mother came from behind and yanked him by the hair immediately stopping him. Naturally I was in no rush to deal with this, but when I finally got out there, we separated the two of them. We told Dena and Fermin to just go. And I spent the next 40 minutes trying to talk Mark down from whatever crazy things he had going on in his mind. He was talking violence, suicide, all sorts of things. I basically told him “she’s not worth it. Take it from me.  She put me through more than my share of misery. She was selfish and she wasn’t going to change.” He calmed down and told me I was right. I told him I was going inside now and to just forget about her. I planned to. As I was leaving he asked “Now can we be friends?” How do you tell a suicidal person you cannot be their friend? The answer: very delicately. Come to think of it, I never saw him again. I wonder if he’s dead.